Vampire vs Spell Caster

Vampires for me, and it's not even close. I do love spell casters, and I have played several of them since RoM came out. I did several witches in TS3 as well, but I have a life long fascination with vampires and werewolves. I love movies, books, everything that tells a story around them, so having them in the game I'm naturally drawn to them.

For whatever reason, I have never encountered a spell caster performing spells outside of the Realm. Not even in Glimmerbrook. I don't know, do you have to be actively playing as one for others to appear and perform magic outside of the Realm? Or am I just so wrapped up in whichever sim I'm playing that I just miss it happening all around them? Whenever the subject of spellcasters comes up it brings this question back up in my mind.

I don't have vampires (yet).
Spellcasters are lots of fun for aesthetic purposes- the casting and dueling and potion-making just looks really cool and you can easily make a lifestyle out of it in your story if you want to. The magic realm is beautiful. Familiars and brooms are fun.
The spells and potions imho fall into two categories: "cheating at life" and "hilarious pranks". Some people like that and some don't.
@DaniRose2143 no, there is no spellcasting autonomy outside the magic realm, unless you make a club with casting spells as an activity. Even in the realm, people won't autonomously cast spells. They practice magic, duel, and experiment on the cauldrons autonomously. But if they're hungry they get food from the fridge instead of casting Delicioso, and if the toilet breaks they stand there and mop endlessly like any foolish muggle sim instead of a quick Scruberoo and Repairio.

Spellcasters. They just seem easier to manage and I don't have to worry about the sun thing and drinking plasma. :# I also love the spells, potions, and familiars.

Spellcaster took the win in this poll from a few years ago.
https://forums.thesims.com/en_US/discussion/966261/vampires-or-casters/p1

I like vampires better because I just keep being frustrated at spellcasters being evil_disabled

like inferniate exists but whats the point when your supposedly evil spellcaster puts out the fire themselves and game disables you to use any more spells cause there is fire on lot

theres morphiate but whats the point when sims will just turn back to sims on their own in like 5 seconds

there is chillio but whats the point when its literally just freeze ray and also turns sims back in like 5 seconds

its just frustrating really

and i also miss too many magic things from older games like show magic fortune telling dragons etc so its hard to get into spellcasting in ts4 at least for now

also tbh I've always been biased with vampires because they're a big mood

like guess who else gets sun allergy and burns in slightest sunlight, constantly has wrong sleep schedule, is always thirsty for a snack and would like to snooze eternally in her gothy mansion? me.

i do disagree about garlic though.
garlic bread is life.

and yeah i guess if nothing else i do need spellcasters to solve some bugs cause some of the stuck items can be destroyed with inferniate so thats nice

I love all things supernatural, but vampires are my favourite. I think they have more depth and personality than spellcasters, which makes them a lot more fun to play. They can also be more powerful depending on their powers/weaknesses and they are very versatile so you can choose how challenging or easy they are to play. I do like spellcasters though and I wish we had hybrids so my vampire could learn alchemy without cheats/mods.

I always loose interest in playing vampires after a while. Even when playing them full out evil... it gets dull.

I tend to play spellcasters as "Sims who can cast spells" rather than "Spellcaster Sims" so I always feel like there's more I can do, because being a spellcaster doesn't have to be their primary focus in life. I've played several spellcasters who don't get any further than Scruberroo or Repario and never make it to the Acolyte stage, because they're more interested in being a writer, or an Astronaut or whatever.

Vampires you always have to be aware of their vampire-ness. Spellcasters can take some time away from being spellcasters.

I like both and play both, but I'm more familiar with spellcasters (I was a late arrival to the Vampires pack). I probably identify with magic in general a bit more, but as far as gameplay goes I think I like both roughly equally.

@mightysprite I figured autonomy might have something to do with it. Same thing with vampires, now that they've nerfed them coming in and making a snack out of unsuspecting sims autonomously. I loved that, but I do understand how it could get on the nerves of those who don't. I wish there was an interaction in the socials where sims can make themselves available as a snack. They could let a particular vampire know that if they need a drink they are welcome to drink from them. It probably seems weird to people who don't like vampires, but it bridges that grey area of a sim who loves vampires but doesn't necessarily want to be one, yet. In TS3 there was the option where a human with high friendship levels with a vampire could sense when they were thirsty and offer to let the vampire drink from them. TS4 does it the other way around. The vampire can compel a victim to be drunk from, or they can ask politely if they wouldn't mind being a giant juice box. The dueling does give the spell casters more depth of play vs vampires and sparring. Both are important for leveling up in each occults powers though.

@simgirl1010 The sun thing isn't that bad after awhile. I make some of vampires daywalkers by working quickly after they turn to level them up to get sun resistance so I can let them go about their business without being incinerated. I do believe if they have an umbrella in their inventory they can use that to be protected from the sun, but don't hold me to that. Plus there is the sun resistance potion that lets them out worry free for like 4 hours. Maybe 8 hours even? I don't know because I've never used it.

Others I want to be classic Dracula types who can never ever go out in the sun, always sleep in coffins. and are totally repulsed by garlic.

Edit: Ok, I was wrong. Vampire invasions have not been nerfed, maybe tuned to happen less frequently, but this just happened. Not an ask to turn, a vampire breaking in for a midnight sip.https://i.imgur.com/kxZtrPV.png?1

Vampires are always more interesting to me but I play Spellcasters a lot. I tend to make themed Spellcasters.

"Simmingal;c-18107317" wrote:
I like vampires better because I just keep being frustrated at spellcasters being evil_disabled

like inferniate exists but whats the point when your supposedly evil spellcaster puts out the fire themselves and game disables you to use any more spells cause there is fire on lot

theres morphiate but whats the point when sims will just turn back to sims on their own in like 5 seconds

there is chillio but whats the point when its literally just freeze ray and also turns sims back in like 5 seconds

its just frustrating really

and i also miss too many magic things from older games like show magic fortune telling dragons etc so its hard to get into spellcasting in ts4 at least for now

also tbh I've always been biased with vampires because they're a big mood

like guess who else gets sun allergy and burns in slightest sunlight, constantly has wrong sleep schedule, is always thirsty for a snack and would like to snooze eternally in her gothy mansion? me.

i do disagree about garlic though.
garlic bread is life.

and yeah i guess if nothing else i do need spellcasters to solve some bugs cause some of the stuck items can be destroyed with inferniate so thats nice

I'm with you on the garlic. Half of my favorite dishes have garlic in them. I'm addicted to Italian food so right there I'd definitely need the two points to purchase the garlic immunity power. I'm not a huge fan of nights right now having just come off 10 straight years of working nights, but if I were a vampire I would only want to be a classic Dracula type so I would have to readapt.